Abstract

Ongoing and upcoming spectroscopic surveys are measuring radial velocities, luminosity distances, and the chemical compositions of stars deep in the Galactic halo. In this talk, I will present novel measurements of the global shape of the stellar halo, and its kinematic implications for the underlying dark matter halo. I will then use this result to resolve a longstanding Galactic mystery: the warp of the disk. Furthermore, I will show how the same dataset can be also used to probe the elusive gaseous halo, or the circum-galactic medium. Lastly, I will present ongoing work with the DESI Milky Way Survey, which is producing one of the largest spectroscopic datasets of the Galaxy to date.